This conference, to be held December 2-4, 1980, in New York City, co-sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences and The Myasthenia Gravis Foundation will review and discuss recent advances in myasthenia gravis and related fields. The first session will review the structure, function, location and immunological determinants of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, and the structure, function, specificities, and other characteristics of antibodies to acetylcholine receptor, which are present in myasthenic patients, including the development of monoclonal hybridoma antibodies to study specificities. The second session will review the effect of circulating antibodies to acetylcholine receptor on receptor structure, function, and turnover in myasthenic patients, in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis, and following passive transfer, and the role on specific antibodies in human and experimental myasthenia gravis. The third session will review the relationship of antibody level and of specific antibodies to the course of myasthenia gravis and the effect of therapeutic measures such as corticosteroid, immunosuppression, plasmaphoresis, and thymectomy, the role of complement and the role of histocompatibility antigens. The fourth session will review the alterations and role in myasthenia gravis of B cells, T cells. suppressor T cells, cellular immune reactions, thymic function, and thymic hormones. The fifth session will review the alterations in neuromuscular transmission in human and experimental myasthenia gravis, including the role of desensitization to acetylcholine, the effect of antibodies and drugs on neuromuscular transmission, and alterations in congenital myasthenia gravis. The sixth session will review the natural course and changing history of myasthenia gravis, and the mechanism and role in management of corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, plasmaphoresis, splenectomy and thymectomy. Research in myasthenia gravis has implications beyond the disease, including the structure and function of acetylcholine receptor in health and disease, normal and abnormal neuromuscular disease, factors affecting production of antibodies in health and disease, including the function of lymphocytes, thymocytes, and the thymus gland and mechanisms of autoimmune diseases.